November 3, 2011
The last time the Flyers played the Buffalo Sabres was in game seven of last year's Eastern Conference Quarter Finals.
The Flyers won the game and the playoff series with a 5-2 victory over the Sabres, in which Buffalo pulled their starting goaltender Ryan Miller after Philadelphia jumped out to a 4-0 lead.
The Flyers played the Sabres for the first time since last year's playoffs, on the road in Buffalo.
Though the score was much closer than game seven, the result was the same.
Ryan Miller was benched only 6:23 into the game, after allowing the Flyers to jump out to a 3-0 lead.
Jhonas Enroth replaced Miller in goal, and the Sabres eventually made it a one goal game. But thanks to great goaltending by Ilya Bryzgalov in the third period, the Flyers took a 3-2 win over the Sabres.
Sean Couturier scored the first goal of the night, and his third on the year, off a rebound of a shot taken by Andreas Lilja. The puck bounced off Miller, and Couturier was able to get control and slip a wrist shot in to give the Flyers an early 1-0 lead (1:43).
Not even two minutes into the game, James Van Riemsdyk (5) made it 2-0 Flyers (1:56), after intercepting a Buffalo pass at center ice, then sniping a shot top shelf, past Miller.
Then Scott Hartnell took a pass from Claude Giroux, then skated the puck into the Sabre's zone. Hartnell crossed the blue line then ripped a slap shot, placed in the same spot as Van Riemsdyk's goal, to score his fifth of the year and put the Flyers up 3-0 (6:23).
Miller was pulled for Enroth after Hartnell's goal, then it became a defensive show for Philadelphia.
In the second, Buffalo finally made it on the board, when a shot by Andrej Sekera (1) slowly slipped through the pads of Ilya Bryzgalov and inot the net (7:49).
In the third, the Sabres cut the Flyer's lead to one, when yet another fluke goal got by Bryzgalov. Luke Adam (4) deflected the puck off the skate of Flyer's defenseman Kimmo Timmonen, Ilya Bryzgalov could not react in time, and it became a 3-2 game (8:29).
However, Bryzgalov was able to shake off the two goals he allowed, and let nothing get by him for the rest of the game.
Bryzgalov finished the night with 29 saves in 31 shots for his fifth win of the year.
Ryan Miller lost his fourth straight last night, making only eight saves in 11 shots, in not even a full period of work.
Enroth did not allow any goals, making 15 saves in relief of Miller.
The Flyers head home to the Wells Fargo Center to play the Devils Thursday night. The Flyers hope to have fowards Danny Briere and Matt Read back to play in the team's second game in two days.
Flyers.NHL.com
http://flyers.nhl.com/club/recap.htm?id=2011020165
ESPN.com
http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=400046715
